Sony Ericsson G900 Preview

Sony Ericcson unveiled the G900 in February 2008 at Mobile World Congress. The Sony Ericcson G900 is a 3G enabled candy bar mobile phone and is available in two colours - dark red and dark brown. The G900 will be the first in a new range of G series handsets when released in July 2008 (exact date tbc). It is worth pointing out that we initially mistook the colour of the dark brown handset as black when initial photos of the G900 were released, however on closer inspection we can confirm the handset is indeed dark brown.

As with other recent releases from Sony Ericsson, the first thing you notice about the G900 is its simple yet sophisticated design. We were immediately pleased to see that the layout of keys/buttons on the G900 are neither too crowded or too small to press - a factor that made operating the W880i/W890i more of a challenge, especially to those of us with sausage fingers.

Main Features

One of the most interesting aspects of the Sony Ericsson G900 is its touchscreen function - one of the first Sony Ericsson mobile phones to utilise such technology. At the touch of the screen, you can very easily and intuitively navigate your way through the phone. And for those who prefer, Sony Ericsson has kindly included a stylus pen which slots stylishly into the left hand side of the mobile phone.

Using the stylus pen, the Sony Ericsson G900 is capable of handwriting recognition. Simply use the stylus pen like any other normal pen and write on the phones screen. Then watch as the phone intelligently transforms your characters into corresponding letters on the G900’s keyboard. What’s even more impressive is the ability to use the G900 to write personal ‘sticky notes’ and reminders in your own handwriting saving time as the phones keypad is not required. However, it has to be noted that the stylus pen is on the rather small side which will make it awkward to use for those with large hands (try writing with an IKEA pencil and you’ll know what we mean).

The Sony Ericsson G900 comes packed with an impressive 5 megapixel camera which will enable the average amateur photographer to seriously consider ditching their stand alone digital camera. At the touch of the screen (using your finger or stylus pen!) you can set the focus area for your photo - as is happening in the picture below. Like other recent Sony Ericsson mobile phones, the G900 enables you to easily capture and edit images and videos so that you can quickly share content using either Email, MMS or by uploading the content directly to your blog. However, with a pleasant 2.4 inch 262K color TFT display of QVGA resolution, the G900 performs more than adequately when displaying images and videos on the phone itself. And if you’re worrying about where to store all your media files, the Sony Ericsson G900 comes with a generous 160 megabytes of internal memory which is expandable into the gigabytes with the purchase of a Memory Stick Micro^TM (M2^TM).

Will it fit in my pocket?

We know what you’re thinking - surely all this smart technology means the phone wouldn’t look out of place on a building site? Well you’re wrong (and so were we). The Sony Ericsson G900 measures in at an impressive 10.6cm in height x 4.9cm in width x 1.3cm in depth and weighs only 99g.

Built in WI-FI

The Sony Ericsson G900 comes with built in WI-FI (WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g for all you geeks) which means you can connect to your wireless home or work network and do all the usual internet activities - web browsing, emails (including push email), Google Maps etc - allowing you to avoid paying the excessive data fees that network operators charge for using their GPRS mobile internet services. However, in instances where you cannot connect to a WI-FI network, the Sony Ericsson G900 does comes with 3G technology, thus providing you with the convenience of broadband Internet to your mobile phone - even if at an extra cost. As is standard with 3G phones, the G900 allows you to make and receive video calls (using the secondary camera on the front of the phone) and stream video too.

But isn’t a phone for talking?

You’re not wrong there - and plenty of talking the Sony Ericsson G900 allows you to do with a credible 380 hours standby time, 12 hours talk time, and 4 hours whilst connected to 3G - not too bad given the aforementioned features of this handset.

In conclusion, the G900 is an impressive piece of kit which brings touchscreen technology to the masses at a more affordable price than the Apple iPhone. Coupled with an integrated MP3 player, 5 megapixel camera, WI-FI and 3G, this phone is certain to be a long term hit for both casual and business users.

The Good

Touchscreen
5 megapixel camera
2.4 Inch screen, 262k colours
WI-FI
3G

The Bad

Memory card slot under the battery
Stylus size - small hands beneficial
Memory Stick Micro not included

The Ugly

Nothing

What do you think? Please post your comments below.